Title: Back Together (2 of 6)
Characters: Wes, Hobbie, Kyp, Jaina
Summary: Kyp and Jaina have, apparently, earned some revenge from Wes and Hobbie. I bet they're pleased.
Notes: Can't remember how I got convinced to write this. Various people of the K/J persuasion, I think. They're awful like that. They forced me to write so much of this. Yes, at gun-point, I'm sure of it. I think I blame Ketharil most of all. Oh well.
Words: 1923

Hobbie looked round the lounge again, for what he felt was the millionth time in the past hour. Nope, he had to do it. "Wes," he started tentatively, "remind me again why we're doing this?"

"Hobbie, Hobbie, Hobbie... isn't it obvious?"

"Not-"

"Revenge!" Wes half-turned, so that he could clearly see his friend, and grinned in what he obviously intended to be a reassuring manner.

It didn't work.

"But for what? Solo didn't do anything to us."

Wes tutted and returned to his intricate work. "She blamed us for something we didn't do - however much I wish I'd thought of it - and reported us to Wedge. Obviously that deserves some revenge."

Hobbie shook his head. "Wes, we ended up playing sabacc with Wedge and Tycho. Not that he'd be able to do anything anyway, considering we're not in the New Republic military anymore."

"You're missing the point here, Hobbie." Apparently finished with his work, Wes stood up and wiped his hands on the edges of his shirt. He froze when he realised what he was doing, glanced down, and sighed with relief when he saw that there was nothing on his hands anyway. "The point," he continued, anticipating Hobbie's next question, "is that we have a valid excuse to exact some revenge, in the form of a practical joke, on Jaina Solo, and I intend to take every such opportunity whenever it arises."

"Is this just because she insulted you and rejected you the first time you met her?"

Wes scowled. "How'd you know that? And no," he continued, a grin quickly returning to his face. "This is just because it's fun."

Hobbie nodded, resigned to his fate. "Fun."

"Yep."

"Why do I have a terribly bad feeling about this?"

Wes waved a hand dismissively. "Because you've not had any caf today. Now hurry up and finish setting up that holocam; I want to catch her reaction on film."

Obligingly, Hobbie did so, fixing the tiny camera into a corner of the room. After a moment studying it, he frowned and moved one of the wall holos to the left slightly; enough to hide the camera, but not enough to obscure the lens. It would still have a fairly clear view of the apartment's entrance, which was all Wes and Hobbie needed. "Done."

"And I hope you remembered to switch it off before it recorded incriminating evidence such as our voices, and so on."

Guiltily, Hobbie reached over and flicked the little switch that would set the camera to remote-mode, rather than on-mode. "Done now," he amended.

"Good stuff... All done here too." Wes grinned. "Now, time for phase two."

It was generally a bad sign, Hobbie mused as he and Wes exited Jaina's apartment, when pranks were planned in 'phases'.

"OK," Wes conceded, "maybe I should have double-checked Solo's schedule before planning phase two."

Hobbie shifted in the uncomfortable plasteel chair and glared at Wes briefly. "You think? I mean, I've only been here four hours, stuck in this tiny little room, with just you for company."

Wes shrugged and glanced up at the holoscreen. Still no Solo. "Actually, it's been three hours and fifty minutes. But who's counting?"

"I still say it was a stupid idea to use the same room as Fel and Veila. It still has that same sign on the door." Indeed, the 'Spec. Ops' sign was still on the outside of the door; the two of them had, when planning this particular venture, decided that the room was too conveniently set up to not be re-used. It was on the side of the building closest to the apartment complex, which meant they only had to use a short range transmitter for the holocam - less risk of detection, Wes had assured Hobbie. Though Hobbie still firmly believed that the plan with the least risk of detection was to not do anything. But when could you ever convince Wes Janson not to go through with a prank?

"Yeah, but no one would think we're stupid enough to use the same room, especially Solo. It's ingenious!"

Hobbie regarded Wes cynically for a second, then sighed. "We are so going to be found."

"Ssh. I think she's back. Turn on the recorder."

Jaina leaned up into another kiss, smiling against Kyp's mouth as he kissed her back, yet again. A moment passed before she pulled away, her back to her apartment door, and smiled up at him. It was strange; even though they had only been going out for a week now, it almost felt like they'd been together for years. Which, she supposed, in a way they had. Just not quite this together.

He smiled back at her, a soft smile that made her feel warm inside, warm and happy. "I love you," he told her, making her smile again. He'd told her that a lot in the past week, and every single time, it amazed her to be able to say the same back, without hesitation.

"I love you, too," she replied, grinning as he lowered his head for another kiss. "Come on," she said when he broke it off, turning to key in her door code. "You don't have to go back to your place for a couple hours, right?"

"Nope. Couple hours here sounds good to me."

"Good-" Jaina froze as the door whooshed open, and stared at the state of her apartment's living room. She blinked several times, rubbed her eyes, and looked again. It still looked the same.

The walls, which had been plain, military-style off-white when she'd left that morning, were now painted a bright orange. About halfway up the wall, on every side of the room, was a wallpaper border with - she squinted to see it more clearly - tiny little pictures of-

"Ewoks," she muttered, ignoring Kyp's snicker behind her. She continued her examination of the room: the coffee table in the centre, now covered with Ewok paw-prints in orange paint; the new cushions, with elaborately stitched Ewoks on the front; the new shade on the ceiling light, a contrasting brown with yellow outlines of Ewoks all over it; the various holos on the wall, all landscape pictures of Endor's forest moon, with tiny, faint Ewoks just visible in some scenes; and, the main feature of the room, the thing that had instantly drawn her eye-

"Is that... I've heard some strange stories, but that's not... is it?" Kyp's voice was one of someone trying to conceal amusement. A lot of amusement.

Jaina gritted her teeth, stalking over to the life-size stuffed Ewok sitting grinning at her from the middle of her couch. Its black eyes seemed to glint dangerously as she approached, and she avoided looking directly into them - they unnerved her slightly.

Taped to the Ewok's chest was a flimsiplast note, folded in half twice. Jaina pulled it off quickly, ignoring the fur still stuck to the tape, and unfolded the note. The message on it was a scrawl, but readable, and very unmistakeable.

Wordlessly, Jaina handed it to Kyp, who tried not to snicker as he read it. "'Yub yub, Colonel. Hope you appreciate the redecorating. Yours, Major Kettch.' So the stories are true," he mused. "Seems the Lieutenant got promoted."

Jaina scowled. "I am going to kill Wes Janson."

"Now now, Jaina," Kyp admonished, still trying to control the amusement in his voice. "That's not a very Jedi-like sentiment-"

"I don't care. I'm going to kill him."

Kyp sighed - still trying to conceal his amusement. Jaina wished he wouldn't; it was even more irritating than him laughing outright. "But really, you don't even know that it was him-"

"Oh, I know, all right. And I swear it, he will pay for this."

"Well, at least you've gotten away from the murderous intent."

"I'll kill him."

Kyp sighed again, even as he failed in his effort and finally grinned. "And here I thought you'd made progress for a second."

Jaina glared round at everything in the room, searching for something, some evidence she could use to justify her next few actions. But there was nothing she could see and so, sighing exasperatedly, she collapsed on the couch beside Major Kettch. "Go find Wes and kill him for me," she ordered Kyp.

"Really, Jaina," he said, trying to sound sad and disapproving as he sat down on the other side of the stuffed Ewok. "I know I said I'd do anything for you, but I'm not going to kill Wes Janson. Besides," he added, glancing round the room again, "it's almost charming. Endearing. Cute."

"Cute."

Kyp grinned at her over the Ewok's head. "And your little cousin will love it."

Jaina sighed, closing her eyes as she leaned back against the couch. "Janson will pay for this. I'll make sure of it."

Kyp rolled his eyes, still smirking irritatingly, and lifted Major Kettch off the couch and onto the floor. "Make sure of it tomorrow," he advised her, shifting a little closer to her. "Make sure of something else tonight."

Jaina opened her eyes slightly, sparing Kyp a brief glance. She nodded and imitated his smirk as he leaned in closer for another kiss. "Tomorrow, then," she agreed, letting the promise slip to the back of her mind as Kyp's mouth descended on hers again - and again, and again.

"OK, uh, Hobbie, turn the camera off."

At Wes's voice, Hobbie nodded abruptly to himself and fumbled with the switches on the control board, trying desperately to remember which one would turn the receiver off.

"Hurry up! We really don't want to film this!"

Hobbie nodded again and sighed with relief as he finally found the switch for the receiver, instantly transforming the picture on the holoscreen to static. As an afterthought, he also switched off the recorder - theoretically, it would now only be recording static, but, well, better safe than sorry.

Wes echoed Hobbie's relieved sigh, then turned and grinned at his friend. "All in all, though, pretty successful, don't you think?"

Hobbie stared at Wes for a moment. "No, I don't think. Did you even hear her?"

"About the payback?"

Hobbie nodded.

"Ah, it's all in the name of fun. Besides," he continued, a dangerous tone to his voice, and a ivery/i dangerous grin on his face, "it just means we get to take more revenge!"

"I can hardly wait."

"That's the spirit, Hobbie," Wes said cheerfully, slapping Hobbie on the back, causing him to pitch forward almost into the control board. "Plus, with a couple more 'missions' like this, we'll get to give Kettch another promotion! And everyone loves those!"

"Remind me to make a note in my datapad at some point; the new definition of 'everyone' is 'Wes Janson'."

Wes nodded, still with a cheerful air about him, and reached out to switch off the remaining controls. He stood up, brushing himself down, and grinned again at Hobbie. "We need to go make more plans now, to defend ourselves against a possible return attack."

Hobbie opened his mouth, then closed it again. "If I scream, will anyone hear me, and come save me?"

"Nope," Wes replied, his tone of voice far more reassuring than his actual words. "Come on. Back to the planning zone."

"The bar."

"Exactly," Wes agreed, and Hobbie couldn't help but feel a little reassured. He would still be sitting making plans with Wes Janson, but at least he could get drunk while doing so. And that, he supposed, was all that mattered.